The Park Ridge Police Department announced its plans for enhanced Thanksgiving Holidaytraffic enforcement, focusing on both drunk and unbuckled drivers. The intensified enforcement effort will be done primarily as seatbelt safety check zones.

Park Ridge Police will join the Illinois State Police and hundreds of police and sheriff’s departments in a statewide enforcement effort that begins November 18, 2013 and runs through December 1, 2013.

This Thanksgiving, law enforcement agencies across the country will be cracking down and issuing tickets to anyone who is not buckled up. No tolerance, no warnings, no excuses. Remember: Click It or Ticket.

·The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel times of the year, and wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to save your life and the lives of your loved ones while on the road this Thanksgiving.

Research shows that with proper seat belt use, the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is reduced by 50 percent.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts saved almost 12,000 lives nationwide in 2011. In the same year, 52 percent of the 21,253 passenger vehicle occupants killed in motor vehicle crashes were NOT wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash.

During the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday (6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23, to 5:59 a.m. on Monday, November 28), 249 passenger vehicle occupants were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes nationwide. Fifty percent of those killed were NOT wearing seat belts.

Nighttime (6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.) is an especially dangerous time because people are less likely to wear seat belts. Nationally in 2011, 62 percent of the 10,135 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed in nighttime crashes were NOT wearing their seat belts, compared to 43 percent during the daytime hours.

Throughout the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday, 57 percent of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in nighttime crashes were unbelted, while only 40 percent of those killed in daytime crashes were unbelted.

With the help of highway safety advocates and local law enforcement officers across the country, we can increase seat belt use and save lives on our roadways.